Album Review: James Sullivan - "Light Years"

 

James Sullivan is a former guitarist with the Role Models as well as being the frontman with More Kicks who were regulars on the London power-pop circuit a couple of years ago. This is his first solo album and, as with a few other efforts we've reviewed of late, was written and recorded during the lockdown amid an uncertain future for touring musicians. Sullivan set himself the task of writing a song a day for ten days and Light Years is the result.

There's an endearing Television Personalities style lo-fi quirkiness to this album from the spoken word opener Lea Bridge giving way to the gentle Frank Turner style acoustics of It Won't Do You Harm and the rough around the edges power pop of Keep Your Heart Alive. Getaway is propelled along by rumbling bass and a drum machine before the acoustic led Guided and the gentle piano ballad Up To My Neck Again show that this is an album where the curveballs just keep coming.

The lockdown frustration of Totally Bored comes across like a mix of early Soul Asylum at their scuzziest and the Stooges before Man In Black strips things back completely for a beautiful skeletal acoustic lament. Get Our Sense Away has an odd late '90s Camden indie post-Britpop vibe about it before another gentle affecting acoustic number in Cruel Trick To Play. In The End has a gentle '60s Beatlesy vibe to it before a weird lo-fi cover of the Proclaimers' Then I Met You finishes things off in a bit of an anticlimax - it's not a bad song but just feels a bit superfluous here.

Hands up, I wasn't really sure what to expect of this album going in but I was really impressed by it - considering it was basically recorded on a shoestring, it's a supremely tuneful collection of lo-fi songs which show off Sullivan's skill as a lyricist and a songsmith - certainly the sheer variety of stuff on here is impressive and there genuinely isn't a weak track here. Certainly one of the more unexpected treats I've had the pleasure of reviewing in this webzine recently.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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